Lamar and I had been best friends since grade school. We mostly took the same classes and played the same sports. Early on, we learned to clear our girlfriends with each other. If both of us were interested, we both backed off. We respected each other too much to fight over a girl. We went to college together and took the same Business Administration classes, joined the same fraternity and we double dated a lot. By the time we were seniors, we both had chosen the women we would marry. As you can imagine they both had killer bodies. I went for the shorter, curvy in the right places' girl. Lamar took the tall slender, sensuous one. There was only one thing wrong with Lamar's choice in my mind: I HATED his bride-to-be. My opinion of Carlie was that she was a selfish, prick teasing, foul-mouthed, gold-digger. Around Lamar, she acted differently and won his heart big time, mostly because of great sex. Lamar was pussy-whipped. It was obvious to me that she loved his wallet more than his heart. Still, we tended to do things that four best friends would do. Lamar and I are best buds after all.
Lamar's family and mine became good friends after meeting at a country club event many years ago. My dad and Lamar's dad liked each other and wound up doing a lot of business together. His father was far wealthier than my father, but we were well off enough that my wife, Veronica, and I were able to start our marriage in a luxury home near where Lamar and Carlie's house was. Both of us had gone into business with our fathers and were on track to inherit the companies.
There was a healthy competition between Lamar and I on things like tennis, gun collections, and business profits. We jogged in the early morning in our neighborhood and usually ended our jog with a 'last one is a _____' challenge to see who finished first. We each donated a lot of money and some time to our favorite charities. It seems we went to all the same banquets and award programs for this and that agency or organization. Sometimes one of us would turn down an invitation if the other wasn't invited. Both us and our wives liked going out for a night of dancing and drinking. All four of us were good at both activities.
One night we were out at a posh nightclub and as usual, we had been drinking. As we did typically, I danced with Carlie after Lamar had asked to dance with my wife. I could tell that Carlie was more than a little tipsy. She whispered a question to me: 'Andrew, why do you hate me so much?' Unfortunately, the number of drinks I had caused me to tell her the unadulterated truth. The booze she drank was not enough to stop her from getting angry. She broke off the dance and stomped into the ladies' room. Lamar came over and asked me what happened.
"I don't know. I think her period started or something." Lucky for me, Carlie did not say anything to Lamar about my comments when she returned. She was ice cold to me in private from then on although she was cordial when the four of us were together. I wasn't that upset at her reaction.
My friendship with Lamar was so strong that the four of us continued to go to places and events together and have each other over to one another's houses. That was despite my conclusion that Carlie wanted to reduce our contact. Veronica and Carlie appeared to be good friends and did things together on their own on occasion. I wondered if Carlie ever told Ronnie about my critique of Carlie during the dance. If so, she never told me.
A couple of years went on. A couple of years where I suffered in silence as it appeared to me that Carlie was taking advantage of Lamar more and more. She bought clothes she never wore or bothered to return. Every year she just had to have the latest model of some sports car. Lamar catered to her every whim. According to him, if he hesitated at all to grant her latest wish, she withheld sex. He never held out very long. He capitulated each and every time. It made me sick.
The four of us agreed that the wives would get pregnant at the same time. It was pretty close. Carlie and Veronica had kids within a month of each other. Carlie had a boy first and Ronnie followed with our precious little girl. They were still in diapers when we started kidding about an arranged marriage. We anticipated our kids would grow up together and be like brother and sister. Carlie and Veronica worked out together at the same gym to regain their pre-pregnancy figures. They shared a nanny that kept the two at either house. Carlie's breast enlargement from giving birth appeared to be permanent, which she seemed very happy with given her almost flat chest before pregnancy. Ronnie's figure went back to normal which suited me fine.
Lamar confessed to me one day we were together that Carlie's libido had increased after the pregnancy. He wasn't complaining about her. He was lamenting his inability to keep up with her demands. There were times where Carlie wanted to have another round of sex when Lamar couldn't get it back up even when Carlie sucked him as hard as she could. He said that one night, she got very upset. A couple of months later, Lamar updated his report and told me that Carlie had calmed down and things were good in the bedroom together. It made me question, 'I wonder if Carlie has found a lover to satisfy her need for more sex.' My thought came partially from how I had observed Carlie look at other men when we were out drinking. I knew she would be very careful to hide an affair if that was what she was doing. Lamar's dad had required a very strict pre-nuptial, so she had literally millions to lose if caught cheating. I was banking on Carlie's huge ego to believe she was smart enough to get away with it. I hired a private investigator.
